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Published On: Aug 28, 2004 11:54 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Aug 28, 2004 11:54 PM
Why It's Hard to Take Pictures of Newborns
When you can't write, make lists
Despite my firm conviction that each of my
children has been the most beautiful creature ever (love that combination of
hormones and sleep deprivation that has such an effect on my aesthetics) as
evidenced by the amazing amount of time I can spend just gazing rapturously at
their little faces, I have very few satisfying pictures of any of them,
especially in the first few weeks. But I have a few good hypotheses as to
why:
10. So few moments when they're awake, not nursing, and not screaming.
9. Synesthesia -- we think we like looking at babies, but I have watched countless women lean over to admire Rainer and -- inconspicuously -- sniff him. So until the invention of scratch'n'sniff polaroids or some olfactory equivalent of the camera, no picture is really going to be satisfying.
8.The Jabba the Hut effect of not really having a neck that will support your head.
7. The photographer who has eyes so bleary she can't tell whether the picture is in focus or not.
6. When said newborn has three adoring older siblings, the backs of their heads often appear between the baby's face and the camera.
5. Often the best time to take a picture is when the older siblings have all been consigned to bed. But even on the longest of Texas summer days, this will be after sunset and thus necessitate a flash, leaving the newborn looking startled and washed out and just not pretty.
4. It is very easy for a tired parent to tell herself that having four boys who look more or less like each other, really, my main concern is just getting a couple of nice shots of every age. Later I can print out a set for each boy and tell him they're all him (would I really lie to my children?) Besides, Jenny is learning Photoshop and I'm sure she can help me edit in a little hair on the pictures of Rainer.
3. When attachment parenting means nearly constant physical contact with the baby, and in our house, he really is safest in his sling, it's very hard to get far enough away to focus a camera on him. Our motto seems to be "Babies are meant to be held if you want anyone else to be heard."
2. Someone keeps losing the camera, I mean, trying to hide it from Søren, who is dying to release his inner Ansel Adams.
1. The moments when my Rainer is alert and happy and I am able to give him my undivided attention are pretty special, so sometimes taking a picture is the last thing I want to do, and it is only because I want to share them with some of the other people he is lucky enough to have love him as well as preserve them for some future version of him that we will be unable to believe was ever this small that I do it at all.
Ok, so your reward for reading all that is a few pictures of the boy, but please don't judge them too harshly.
10. So few moments when they're awake, not nursing, and not screaming.
9. Synesthesia -- we think we like looking at babies, but I have watched countless women lean over to admire Rainer and -- inconspicuously -- sniff him. So until the invention of scratch'n'sniff polaroids or some olfactory equivalent of the camera, no picture is really going to be satisfying.
8.The Jabba the Hut effect of not really having a neck that will support your head.
7. The photographer who has eyes so bleary she can't tell whether the picture is in focus or not.
6. When said newborn has three adoring older siblings, the backs of their heads often appear between the baby's face and the camera.
5. Often the best time to take a picture is when the older siblings have all been consigned to bed. But even on the longest of Texas summer days, this will be after sunset and thus necessitate a flash, leaving the newborn looking startled and washed out and just not pretty.
4. It is very easy for a tired parent to tell herself that having four boys who look more or less like each other, really, my main concern is just getting a couple of nice shots of every age. Later I can print out a set for each boy and tell him they're all him (would I really lie to my children?) Besides, Jenny is learning Photoshop and I'm sure she can help me edit in a little hair on the pictures of Rainer.
3. When attachment parenting means nearly constant physical contact with the baby, and in our house, he really is safest in his sling, it's very hard to get far enough away to focus a camera on him. Our motto seems to be "Babies are meant to be held if you want anyone else to be heard."
2. Someone keeps losing the camera, I mean, trying to hide it from Søren, who is dying to release his inner Ansel Adams.
1. The moments when my Rainer is alert and happy and I am able to give him my undivided attention are pretty special, so sometimes taking a picture is the last thing I want to do, and it is only because I want to share them with some of the other people he is lucky enough to have love him as well as preserve them for some future version of him that we will be unable to believe was ever this small that I do it at all.
Ok, so your reward for reading all that is a few pictures of the boy, but please don't judge them too harshly.
Posted: Wed - August 25, 2004 at 09:37 PM